Indian vegetarian food - quick and easy daal tadka recipe in instant pot!
So I thought I would give this a try. Why not?!
I often cook at home because we have a unique issue. The daal and saag portion sizes from restaurants are not sufficient for us. Talk about portion size ;)
My husband loves daal tadka and in fact we shared it as our first meal together. So we have sweet memories associated with it. Coming to the recipe, I'll share my quick version of daal tadka in instant pot. The recipe is from my hometown in central India and I have tweaked it to work in instant pot. It would take around 30-45 mins. So let's begin!
Ingredients:
1 cup split pigeon daal commonly known as toor daal in Indian store. You can also buy this online.
1/3 cup clarified butter also known as ghee. I make my own ghee but you can also buy this online
2 medium tomatoes
1 small spoon mustard seeds
1 small spoon turmeric powder also known as haldi
1 small spoon red chilli powder. You can add less or more depending on your spice tolerance
1 small spoon jaggery. You can also substitute it with sugar. Some days I use 1 packet of equal :)
2 dry whole red chillies (optional)
Few cilantro leaves to garnish (optional)
Salt according to taste
Method:
Step 1 Soak 1 cup toor daal in room temperature water for 5 minutes
Step 2 Transfer the contents to instant pot. I use 3:1 water to daal ratio meaning 3 cup water for 1 cup daal.
Step 3: Cut tomatoes into small pieces and add to the instant pot
Step 4: Turn on instant pot on high pressure for 20 minutes
Step 5: Once finished let the pot cool down and add the following ingredients: 1 small spoon jaggery/sugar, 1 small spoon turmeric powder, salt according to your taste
Step 6: Stir the daal and now let's get ready for the tadka or vaghar
Step 7: Heat up a small pan on medium flame and add 1/3 cup clarified butter/ghee
Step 8: Once the ghee heats up put very few mustard seeds in it to check if it is ready. If the mustard seeds immediately crackle and come up that means your ghee is ready. If not wait a few more minutes
Step 9: Add 1 small spoon of mustard seeds and 2 dry whole chillies to the ghee. They will start to crackle in the hot ghee
Step 10: Next, add red chilli powder and let it sizzle in the hot ghee for 2-3 seconds. Be careful not to burn the red chilli powder
Step 11: Turn off the flame and immediately put the content in the instant pot
Step 12: There will be a nice sizzling sound with a beautiful aroma that'll linger in your kitchen for some time.
Step 13: Stir well and garnish with cilantro
Your daal tadka is ready!! Please do share your experiences and/or questions.